May 21, Mon: Saw small ORV tracks along the east Vekol. May 22, Tues: On the far east side, the broken AZ Game & Fish sign was hanging down so I propped it up again. Fresh ORV tracks prominent everywhere. Found two additional entrances to the Vekol on the south bank further east. May 23, Wed: West trail -- for the first time in a long time, saw small ORV tracks there. It’s a shame because it was starting to see some recovery. Also, it is still evident that ORVs are ignoring the AZG&F signs. They are actually making a new trail around the one that says “No Vehicular Travel – Restoration in Process.”
May 24, Thurs: Man on a horse rode by into the Vekol. Later a man on a blue ORV sped past and into the Vekol. By the dust cloud, it appeared that he went straight back and then turned around but he never emerged from the Vekol on to the road. So I’m certain he exited the area illegally off-road somewhere. May 25, Fri: Saw where the blue ORV headed east down the Vekol as suspected, cutting across some of the islands. May 26, Sat: At least two ORVs and a motorcycle were riding around north of the Vekol. May 28, Mon: Man on a horse rode by again. May 30, Wed: Two red ORVs emerged from the Vekol – an adult and a child. May 31, Thurs: Received an email from BLM’s Patrick Brasington asking for license plate numbers on the vehicles involved in the suspicious activity as it might relate to illegal immigration and/or smuggling. Though I did not have the numbers, I sent him what video footage I had. I also asked him what he thought the chances were of getting the road closed and his recommendation on how to proceed. Have yet to hear back from him on that one.
June 3, 2007 – June 21, 2007
June 6, Wed: Saw 4-5 cattle grazing on the west side of the fence just north of the Vekol. One of them was the big black bull previously seen at the Mesquite Bosque a few weeks ago – had a green tag in his ear but couldn’t get close enough to see any other identifying marks.
Followed some new wide vehicle tracks down the middle trail. They crossed the first east wash and continued down to the second east wash after riding around in circles on the plain. Same tracks were also in the east Vekol. At one point they exited the Vekol on the north bank just west of the 1st east wash and traveled through a very densely vegetated area and uneven terrain through a deep arroyo. Looked like they got stuck and then got out after making some large ruts. Then they kept going north over vegetation and small arroyos back toward the middle trail.
June 7, Thurs: Small ORV tracks all over the west Vekol – north and south lanes, and through the densely vegetated island.Saw man on horse again. June 8, Fri: Saw a huge rock squirrel run across the west Vekol up on to the south bank next to the hill. June 10, Wed: A man in a baseball cap came driving out of the Vekol in what looked like a green Subaru station wagon. June 11, Mon: New illegal trail forming across the island in the east Vekol just west of where our small wash merges with the Vekol.
Man rode by on his horse again, but this time it was in the afternoon – not in the morning like usually. June 12, Tues: Late afternoon – 5th Gila Monster sighting this year!
It was traveling northwest across the front of our property. It went into our backyard and parked under a creosote bush while I proceeded to film it. When I compared the photos to the other sightings, I confirmed it was Glow – the Gila Monster that I sighted on May 17, Thursday morning, on the west side of the fence. I named him or her Glow for identification purposes since this was not this lizard’s first appearance. While I was videotaping, I heard two noisy ORVs in the distance north of the Vekol. At one point they were coming our way but stopped at the wash. I heard one of them yell something about “barbed wire” and then they turned around. By the noise and the dust cloud, it appeared that they went north again and then west. June 13, Wed: Sure enough, those ORVs had cut the fence in two places. They cut the bottom wire of the fence in the portion that crosses the Vekol, leaving a gap just big enough for them to go under. On the other side their tracks continued west and directly up on to the north bank through a densely vegetated area on the west side of the fence. They also cut, tore down, and ran over the gate going west. Before that, they veered off the dirt road and made loops around some creosote bushes. I notified AZ Game & Fish so they could locate the cattle owner and get someone out to repair the fence.
June 14, Thurs: Saw where the ORVs on Tuesday had traveled all over the east Vekol as well, up on to the banks, and slicing through the islands. Found a discarded cigarette pack on the ground in the middle of the Vekol. June 15, Fri: Did the lower ridge trail. Found a full water bottle directly east of the location in the first east wash where the illegal immigrants previously camped. Saw my first Desert Toad of the season. Our puppy chased it off the deck and it disappeared before I could film it. June 16, Sat: Starting to really heat up now. Did the south lane of the west Vekol, checking out likely desert tortoise burrows. One of my dogs smelled the 2nd one obsessively but I did not see any scat or tracks.
Found some strange dig marks in the dirt on the steep south bank just across the arroyo near the Saguaro strand. Looks like they were done with a shovel. The dogs smelled something there as well but the dirt did not look freshly dug. This is very near where I found the abandoned blue backpack and recorded moving dolly tracks some time ago.
For the
Judy Kennedy
www.judykennedy.com/haleyhills.htm
